This weekend sees the start of the second edition of weekend “Quota 101”, the winter tour that takes the sounds and voices of R101 to the mountains, on the snowy slopes of the most popular ski resorts, including San Martino di Castrozza (TN) on 28/29 January, Bardonecchia (TO) on 4/5 February, Ponte di Legno (BS) on 11/12 February and Aprica (SO) on 18/19 February, before winding up on 26 February.

The live shows
The musical stars of this year’s tour will be Luca Carboni and Enrico Ruggeri, who will alternate on the stage during the tour performing live, on the Saturday afternoon, their big hits and more recent songs.
Before them, at 2.30 pm, Cristiano Militello will be live on stage with an amusing and ironic show in the style of “Carica di 101”, the show he presents on R101 with Paolo Cavallone and Sara.

Live music at the “Quota 101” village
On Saturday, from 10 to 12 and Sunday from 10 to 1, R101 will broadcast live from the mobile studio alongside the ski slopes, providing music and entertainment for all the people present and in the company of Gianfranco Monti and Ugo Conti, and discovering what’s on in Italy this weekend.

Two days of fun
In addition to non-stop music, between the performances of the two big stars of Italian music and the selection of hits made by R101, each stage of the “Quota 101” winter tour will be an authentic party, with animation, entertainment and a host of gadgets for all those taking part.
And at 5 pm, keeping the temperature and good humour levels high, a warm drink will be offered to everyone directly from the radio truck.

“Quota 101” has been organised thanks to partnerships with Eolo, Glaming, Lichtena, Mitsubishi, Parah, Pharmentis and Vuarnet. The event is designed and produced by GM Communication in Milan, a company that has been successfully organising events for over twenty years.
To follow each stage of the tour and for photos and videos from the slopes, please go to www.r101.it.

Mondadori has signed an agreement for the publication of Grazia South Africa with Media24, the leading publisher in Africa in the business and consumer magazines market.
This launch extends the reach of the Grazia International Network for the first time with an edition also in this continent.

John Relihan, chief executive of Media24 declared: “Grazia has become a global brand and we believe it can have the same level of success in South Africa as it has had in other countries. We are delighted to embark on this new adventure with a partner like Mondadori,” Relihan concluded. Liezl de Swardt, general manager of Media24’s Women’s Interest division, explained: “The first edition of Grazia was published in 1938 and since then the magazine has become one of the key brands in fashion, and a leader in the women’s weekly market at an international level”.

“Grazia South Africa will be the first on the African continent,” declared Zeno Pellizzari, head of Mondadori’s International Activities. “We are very proud to be working with Media24 and with this launch we are sure that we will have a decisive impact on the competitive scenario in South Africa, just as we’ve had in France, the UK, Germany, China, Russia and Holland,” Pellizzari concluded.

The weekly Grazia South Africa will be characterized by the usual ‘easy chic’ formula that distinguishes the Grazia brand around the world: fashion, news and celebrities, enhanced with international trends and local style and tendencies.

Media24
Media24, is Africa’s leading publishing group, with its principal activities in the south of the continent. It is the biggest magazine publisher and one of the most important players in the newspaper sector, as well as operating as a printer and distributor of magazines and digital content.

Great news for the line up of R101. From this week joining the team of presenters are 2/3 of the Gialappa’s Band and a leading female voice of Italian radio.
Marco Santin, Giorgio Gherarducci and Flavia Cercato, from Monday to Friday, from 1 to 3 pm, will head up the new programme Stile libero (Free style).

“With these prestigious new voices,” declared Guido Monti, the station manager of R101, “our offer is now more brilliant and complete. Professionals of this level can only enrich and enhance the schedule with a totally new impulse, but always with the focus of R101 on the most ironic and genuine entertainment, in line with our most recent claim ‘Forever Fun’”.

As the name of the programme suggests, “free style” will be the key word for the three presenters: in fact, during the first afternoon they will entertain listeners with features, comments, guests, contra-news and bizarre comments in the familiar Gialappa’s style. And Flavia Cercato, their historic correspondent, will have a tough job trying to introduce some order and control over the two “Gialappi”, ever more abrasive and irreverent. A live show that will soon become an unmissable daily appointment.

Guests of honour of Stile libero will be the listeners, who will actively take part in the programme and be continuously surprised by the trio and their “celebrated accomplices”.

Marco Santin and Giorgio Gherarducci on R101 return full time to their first love, radio, with an amusing programme that is innovative and original in the landscape of Italian radio and perfectly in line with their personalities a tempo.

The Help, the debut novel by Kathryn Stockett (published in Italy by Mondadori), and a bestseller with sales of over 10 million copies around the world and over a million ebook downloads of Amazon, is coming to the big screen.

The film, which is on general release in Italy from 20 January, is a faithful account of the story told by Kathryn Stockett in her book.
At the beginning of the ’60s, in a small town in Mississipi, three extraordinary and completely different women join forces for a common project.
Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, played in the film by Emma Stone, is a young graduate recently returned from college to live with her family who finds it hard to conform to the plan of married life prepared for her by her mother. She prefers to dedicate herself to her one big passion, writing.
Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis), meanwhile, is a caring black maid who has, one after another, brought up seventeen white children and who has to face the loss of her own son, killed in an accident at work to the general indifference of the local mainly white community.
Minny (Octavia Spencer) is Aibileen’s best friend. Short, overweight and with a violent husband, despite being an excellent cook, she moves from family to family due to her inability to control her behaviour.
Despite marked social, cultural and character differences, the three women begin to work secretly on a book that will put them at great risk; a book that gives an account of the day to day life of black maids working for white families and based of the direct experience of the protagonists.

The film, which has already been a huge box office hit in the United States, received five nominations for the 2012 Golden Globe 2012, with Octavia Spencer win the award for best actress in a supporting role.

Mondadori today announced it had reached a formal agreement with Pozzoni SpA for the sale of its residual 20% stake of Mondadori Printing SpA.

The operation was perfected following the exercise of a call option given to Gruppo Pozzoni with the preliminary contract, stipulated on 19 November 2008, for the sale of 80% of Mondadori Printing SpA, the company that grouped together the activities of the Mondadori Group’s Printing Division.

The exercise price of the call option – based on the agreements outlined in the 2008 contract – is €19,186,000.

As a result of this operation Gruppo Pozzoni will become the sole owner of 100% of the share capital of Mondadori Printing SpA.
The 8-year printing contract, stipulated at the same time as the abovementioned agreement in 2008, will remain fully in place.

Gruppo Pozzoni is now one of the leading players in the european printing market, with 10 operating companies and nine plants (in the provinces of Bergamo, Lecco, Milan, Rome, Trento, Verona and Vicenza).

In the Duomo square Multicenter, Mondadori has opened “MOBI”, a newly conceived space dedicated to kids.

Created for children, but also for their parents, this is a colorful and cozy place right in the heart of Milan, where you can play and develop language skills accompanied by “Mobi” (Mondadori Bimbo) to discover books. Inside this space, in fact, on top of a very wide selection of books and toys divided and selected by age group, many didactic and play activities take place, with the aim of teaching children how to read actively, consciously and with enthusiasm.

Indeed “MOBI” is innovative in the design of its fittings, but most of all for the didactic contents supplied by MUBA (Museo dei Bambini Milano – Children’s Museum of Milan) and amusement opportunities created by multimedia paths and creative labs.

Many of the suggested activities foresee the use of tablets, with which children can interact and increase their imagination. Through 10 iPad, positioned on a large interactive platform in the center of the room, they can build their own ideal e-book, a veritable electronic book, with cover, title, author, and short story. The youngest (0 to 6 years old) will work thanks to illustrations, while the eldest (6 to 12 years old), will measure themselves against a more structured story. Moreover, by connecting to www.mobimondadori.it and by retrieving the e-book created inside the Mondadori Multicenter, it is possible to read the book itself on one’s iPad, color it and print it at home.

Creative labs also propose to children the exploration and the discovery of storytelling with reference to the four main themes developed in the multimedia project: the story’s characters, places, animals and travels.

Organized classes from January to May at MOBI every Sunday are free with necessary booking; the first event will take place on Sunday 8 January with two sessions (from 3 to 4 pm and from 4.30 to 5 pm) on the location of stories for children between the ages of 4 and 6; the complete schedule and all information on application are available at the Multicenter store.
Mondadori Multicenter opens its door to students too: the initiative Alunni in libreria (students in the bookstore) has been renewed. It offers a visit to discover the bookstore with a non-scholastic approach to reading. Meetings will take place in the mornings until May, from Monday to Friday (info 0245441161).

As a completion to the Mondadori Multicenter offer for kids, Sale&Pepe cooking classes for children will take place in February on the store’s “Cook&Books” floor: many meetings for youngsters to experiment with their own imagination while cooking and learning how to select ingredients. The class schedule can be found on www.corso-di-cucina.it .

The Duomo square Mondadori Multicenter is the largest space dedicated to culture and leisure in the heart of Milan. The store, with a surface of 4.000 square meters, offers its customers a wide range of books and dvds, a news stand and an exclusive line of stationary, gadgets and gifts; on the second floor you can find the most up to date digital technology, computers and phones. All this makes the Mondadori Multicenter a very pleasant meeting space for the whole family, where you can dive into culture surrounded by an atmosphere rich in stimuli and novelties.